Used Mahogany Decking

I’ve stumbled upon about 100bdft of used mahogany decking for dirt cheap. The boards are in excellent shape and are 5/4×5 1/4” in various lengths. Boards were pulled up from a 6 year old deck. After a light run through the planer, they look like new with the exception of the old nail holes.

My only idea for the boards so far is adirondack chairs, however I’m a little worried about splinters as my experience with wood like this is that it can splinter and nobody wants that in a pair of shorts on a hot summer day.

Am I overthinking the splintering? Any other ideas for the wood?

2 replies so far

Are the splinters on the edges only, or on the face? If only the edges, then a router with a roundover or chamfer bit + sanding should solve that. If the faces are splintery, then you are probably up against some wild grain. It may be possible weathering has affected the cross-grain strength more than skin-deep. Plane a board more and check if that solves the problem. A penetrating outdoor finish will likely “glue down” any loose fibers, which will probably stop splinters. If you have some penetrating finish on hand, apply some to a sample and see if that does it.